Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want To Know About Fast Food

“The whole experience of eating at a fast food restaurant has become so familiar, so routine, that we take it for granted. It’s become just another habit, like brushing your teeth before bed.”

From the outset of their book, Schlosser and Wilson set up the idea that eating fast food has become a normal part of American childhood. For some, going to a fast food restaurant to eat may even be as regular as the nightly habit of brushing their teeth: it’s that engrained in the collective consciousness of Americans.

“The companies that sell fast food don’t want you to think about it. They don’t want you to know where it comes from and how it’s made. They just want you to buy it.”

Having introduced the notion that fast food consumption is a mindless act for many people, Schlosser and Wilson now say that consumer thoughtlessness goes hand in hand with fast food corporations’ agenda. The more one considers what goes on behind the scenes in the fast food industry, the less likely it is for one to want to eat there. Consumer ignorance is bliss for these corporations. 

“[…] the Happy Meals, two-for-one deals and free refills of soft drinks give a false sense of how much fast food actually costs. The real price never appears on the menu.”

Schlosser and Wilson are here encouraging the reader to think again about the real, societal cost of fast food. While the consumer may think that a Happy Meal is a cheerful bargain, in actual fact, the real price of consuming fast food will emerge elsewhere, either in their own bodies or in the exploitation of workers, producers or animals.